First Impressions: OPPO F11 Pro

With the launch of the F11 Pro, OPPO is once again out to seek domination in the mid-range segment amidst a very intense competition. Their formula? bringing more premium features such as a rising front-camera, more powerful hardware, and an all-new look, combined with an attractive price tag.

The question is, will it work? we spent some time with the F11 Pro, to find out.

Design and Build Quality

OPPO has decided to rework the design of its newest F-series device, which seems to be inspired by the more premium Find X. The variant that we have for review is called Thunder Black, which uses a three-gradient glossy finish for a premium look and feel. They even changed the layout of the branding at the back, which is a good move.

Because its camera is now hidden away in a motorized mechanism, you’ll have the entire 6.5-inch screen to work with. Speak about the display, it’s one of the best I’ve seen from the brand. The vividness and punchy colors are there, it’s detailed, and its properly visible under direct sunlight.

Button placement – volume rocker on the left, and power button on the right. Oddly, OPPO has returned to a Hyrbid SIM Tray, unlike their usual Triple Slot Tray. They’ve also chosen to stick with a microUSB port instead of a Type-C. But hey, you do get VOOC 3.0 Flash Charge.

For its price, you’d think that OPPO wouldn’t forget to put that tiny LED notification light. But nope, this phone still doesn’t have that, and personally that’s quite a letdown. It’s something that’s very basic, but is still overlooked often.

Performance

The OPPO F11 Pro runs on the new octa-core Helio P70 processor, which offers up to 13% improvement in performance over the P60. Of course, those figures don’t really mean anything until we actually try it out.

What’s interesting is that OPPO has augmented this device with Hyper Boost, its own performance acceleration engine, which in the simplest terms, should allow apps to start faster, and give a better than usual gaming experience. So I did play PUBG (HD + High Frame Rate setting) and true enough, I never encountered any issues and gameplay was generally smooth.

Of course, we’ll be testing the phone with other titles, to see how it really performs. Using GameBench, we’ll be able to show you actual FPS, CPU usage, and more.

Camera

OPPO sticks to a dual camera setup, composed of a 48MP main sensor combined with a 5MP depth sensor. As for daytime stills, I was very impressed with the quality, especially how sharp and detailed the photos looked. The depth of field effect it creates is also accurate in terms of detecting edges, and the blurred part shows no signs of pixelation.

I’ll save the final score for the full review, but to give you an idea, here are some samples.

The new Ultra Night Mode feature lets you take long exposure shots without the need for a tripod. And I’d say that the camera was able to take a decent shot at minimal lighting, such as the image below.

Selfies are amazingly detailed. In fact, it’s the part that impressed me the most. The quality is just so good that If I didn’t know, I’d probably think that the phone is a flagship.

We’ll have more shots ready for you in our full review, so stay tuned.

Software

I’ve always taken ColorOS as one of the more refined takes on Android. Now, they overhauled it to look more… minimalistic, and I actually like it.

As far as features are concerned, you still get the usual options to personalize the device, then there’s Game Space, which compiles your games in a central hub, and allows you to launch them with a specific power profile depending on what you prioritize – performance or battery life.

Game Assistant returns with a swipe from the left side of the display. It lets you perform select tasks in-game like taking a screenshot and recording what’s on screen.

Initial Verdict

The OPPO F11 Pro is shaping up to be a strong contender in the mid-range market. Its cameras in particular already show great potential, just by our first sample shots, and we can’t wait to it out in more shooting conditions like in low-light.

Gaming with it was also quite an engaging experience, though we’ll have to try out other titles to see how it really performs. Of cours, we’ll be testing how long it’ll last with a single charge, and how fast it can recharge using that VOOC 3.0 technology.

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Emman has been writing technical and feature articles since 2010. Prior to this, he became one of the instructors at Asia Pacific College in 2008, and eventually landed a job as Business Analyst and Technical Writer at Integrated Open Source Solutions for almost 3 years.